Saskia Bonjour
Assistant Professor, University of Amsterdam
- Senior Researcher
Saskia Bonjour is associate professor in political science. She teaches mostly in the field of gender & politics and intersectionality. Her research focuses on the politics of migration and citizenship in the Netherlands and in Europe. She is especially interested in family migration, civic integration, gender and migration, and Europeanisation.
Research
Through her study of the politics and policies of migration and citizenship, Saskia Bonjour explores how political actors define identities and communities, that is how they distinguish between ‘us’ and ‘them’. Her research is about how these actors define criteria of membership as well as the rights and resources which flow from different degrees of membership and deservingness, and thus what it means to belong. A crucial line of inquiry in her work is the relation between the politics of intimacy and the politics of belonging, i.e. the way in which gender and family norms shape the politics of migration and citizenship. Other aspects of migration politics that she has published about include the impact of law and courts, Europeanisation, party politics, and the impact of news media on policymaking. Saskia Bonjour's research approach is comparative and interdisciplinary, drawing not only from political science but also from history, law, and sociology.
In 2019, the Dutch Research Council (NWO) awarded Saskia Bonjour a VIDI grant for a five year research project entitled "Strange(r) Families. Political Contestation over Family Migration Rights for Non-Normative Families". The Strange(r) Families project revolves around the question: which families belong in Europe? The right to family migration is highly contested for families which deviate from the norm, such as same-sex or polygamous families. This project analyses how migration law and politics deal with different kinds of families asking to be allowed to live together in Europe.
Recent publications include the Routledge Handbook of the Politics of Migration in Europe, co-edited with Agnieszka Weinar and Lyubov Zhyznomirska, as well as a special issue on Migration and Social Class, co-edited with Sébastien Chauvin and published in International Migration.